dignity

From Middle English dignitee, borrowed from Old French dignité, from Latin dīgnitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dīgnus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *dḱ-nos, from *deḱ- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪɡnɪti/

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dignity (countable and uncountable, plural dignities)

1. The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
   • 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii

     He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.

   • 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5

     Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness.
   • 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:

     Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.

3. High office, rank, or station.
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:

     He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.

   • Macaulay

     And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?

4. One holding high rank; a dignitary.
   • Bible, Jude 8.

     These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.

5. (obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.
   • Sir Thomas Browne

     Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.

• worth
• worthiness

• augustness, humanness, nobility, majesty, grandeur, glory, superiority, wonderfulness

• deign
• dignified
• dignify

• affirmation
• integrity
• self-respect
• self-esteem
• self-worth

• dignity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dignity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• tidying